1
2
5
7
3
Can you associate the
picture to the idea?
a. wisdom, knowledge
b. Peace
c. Courage, strength
d. Love, passion
e. Patriotism, freedom
f. Evil, temptation
g. Doctors, medicine
h. Protagonist, antagonist
(good guy, bad guy)
4
6
8
Symbols and Symbolism
Symbol= a person, place, object or activity that stands
for more than just itself
For example: fork in the road (important decision)
the color red (love, anger, passion)
torrential storm (an emotional upheaval)
mountain (obstacle to overcome)
Symbolism can be used to help emphasize a story’s theme,
bring deeper or clearer meaning
Symbols can be people/ characters,
places (such as the setting of the story),
objects, or even actions
Robert Frost –The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the
same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
What could the roads symbolize , or stand for?
Yet knowing how way leads on to
way,
I doubted if I should ever come
back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the
difference.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
… Seabiscuit, An American Legend
Given what you know about symbolism, and
about the Great Depression, why do you think
Seabiscuit was so important to Americans?
What could his story have symbolized?